Vacation, day 2

Yesterday's "vacation" started out with me going to our warehouse/store and working for four and a half hours. I must have the word "chump" stamped on my forehead to spend my morning at work when I could be...oh, I don't know...DOING ANYTHING ELSE!

After work, I tried to go to the gym. I had packed a little gym bag with clothes, towel, iPod, water, everything I would need...except for sneakers. I pick up the bag and think "This seems a little light". Gym time aborted. I grabbed some lunch instead and made my way to Gumball's.

After watching most of Pirates of the Caribbean 3, the rest of our crew arrived, 5 people in all. We all squeezed into Eric's car, and I do mean squeeze. Eric has a Honda Fit which can handle 4 people somewhat comfortably. Five people, with one of them being rather tall (me) and another being rather wide (Gumball) is a whole other matter. Lee, Gumball and I cram into the backseat of the car, with me in the middle, and of course they immediately start fucking with me, putting their arm around me and rubbing my leg. If I didn't know these guys so well, and have no doubt of their hetero status, I might have been worried. As it was, we were joking, laughing, telling tall tales of our reckless youth with wild abandon.

We got to AC around 8:00. After some deliberation, we had dinner at a Cuban restaurant inside the Tropicana. Arroz con Pollo (a chicken and rice dish) which was damn good, a rum-like drink which was tasty but small, and a little dessert (they ordered me a birthday cakelet, and we passed it around). Of course, Lee wouldn't let me pay, even when I offered repeatedly. Thanks, guys. You're great.

After dinner, we did the casinos. About an hour or so at the Trop, two hours at Ceasers, significantly less time at Bally's, then back to the Trop to finish the night. I played mostly slots and video poker, although I did win a little money playing Sic Bo, which Gumball described as "roulette with dice." All told, I dropped about $140 at the casinos. A few friends met us there, and we had a good old-fashioned boys' night. Amazingly, nobody drank other than with dinner, nobody was arrested or slapped, and other than some very loud laughing and breaking up, nobody embarrassed themselves (by the way, where's Eric?)

By around 4am, we were all pretty much done, so we piled back in the car (only 4 of us this time; Lee caught a ride with someone else from our group) and headed for home. Got back to Gumball's at 6:40, just in time for me to drive to Mass (today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, a day of obligation). After Mass, back to Mom's, where I am now.

OK, I've had a grand total of 30 minutes sleep since yesterday morning. I'm going to crash now. Plans for today are a little up in the air; my sister's dog is ill, so the boat trip may not happen. However, one thing that will be happening is my dinner with sandybright. Finally I get to meet the person behind the personality. Looking forward to getting to know her better, and may be another late night. Come Saturday, I will be worshiping at the altar of Juan Valdez at our Lady of Starbucks.

EDIT at 10:45am: I really, REALLY hate my job right now. Since I posted this entry, I've have had two calls from work, and I've had to jump on the computer for a half-hour, all because my respective bosses are either too impatient to scroll to the bottom of a page, or too hasty to make a decision and not have to backtrack on it a day later.I am so fucking tired right now. I can't fucking believe I am going to spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon trying to catch up on sleep from which I should just now be waking.